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have greatly increased. Respecting the modes of working and its results Miss Brittan says, "The native Christian women visit each house every day and give all the secular teaching. The lady missionaries follow, visiting every house once a week, examining into the lessons of the whole week, and explaining them thoroughly, and giving a good Bible lesson." Among the young women you do not find one really bigoted Hindu, where ten years ago you found a hundred.

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faith in their own religion is very much shaken; they have many doubts; and now laugh at many of the things they used formerly to respect and admire." Altogether in 1871 there were in and near Calcutta fifty-six girls' schools, two thousand seven hundred and ninetyfive scholars and four hundred and eighty-seven zenanas under visitation. This may be taken as a specimen of what is being done throughout India. The numerous societies devoted to female education are generally additional to and independent of missionary societies, and cultivate a field which no one else can reach.

Calcutta has been the centre of discussions and attempts at religious reform which have powerfully influenced native thought. Here is the home of the Brahma Samâj, which may be taken as the outcome of the life of the reformer Ram Mohun Roy. In the opinion of experienced observers on the spot, its progress has sustained a check, and it is gradually assuming a philosophical instead of a religious character. But it has left a deep mark on the Hindu mind. Very interesting too are the accounts of self-supporting native churches of the London and Baptist missions governing themselves and maintaining their own pastors.

Radiating from Calcutta are vigorous missions covering the whole country to the farthest limits of Assam in the north-east, in the south-west to the temple of Jagannath in Orissa, and west as far as Patna in Behar. Fair specimens of these are the flourishing Church Missions at Burdwan, where the devoted Weitbrecht laboured, and the Baptist Mission at Barisal. Of all these fields Mr. Sherring's volume gives interesting details. A singular instance of rapid extension, so unusual in India, was witnessed about forty years ago at Krishnagar in the Church Mission. There was a sect called Karta Bojas, holding a creed partly Hindu and partly Mohammedan. One of this sect came forward as an inquirer, and was fiercely persecuted by his old friends. His food was poisoned, so that his organs of speech were paralysed for a time. However, the next year thirty of the sect became Christians, and two years afterwards, the head-men of ten villages followed the example. The movement spread from village to village, and in a few months six hundred families, containing about three thousand souls, were baptized. But the rapid progress was not maintained. At present there are about four thousand eight hundred and seventy converts living in forty-eight villages, and forming forty-one congregations.

The newest, most romantic and most successful missions are those among the aboriginal tribes, called Kôls and Santals, who live to the north-west of Orissa. Scattered up

and down in India, chiefly in hilly districts, are remnants of the original inhabitants of the country who were driven to the fastnesses of the hills by the Brahman invaders, and who have never been converted to Hinduism. It is strange that until

recently Christian missions seem to have overlooked tribes who are in about the same social condition as the natives of Africa and Polynesia, without the culture and prejudices of the civilization which has surrounded them for ages. Mr. Sherring says, "Ignorant, without a literature, and free from many of the prejudices fostered by the elaborate superstitions and idolatrous practices of the Hindoos, they have fewer obstacles preventing them from considering the claims and tenets of the Gospel."

Chôta Nagpore, the country of the Kôls, is a fine undulating tableland, richly wooded, with a fertile soil and temperate climate. AngloIndians will appreciate a thermometer at 44° in the cool season, and the "joyous lark" at early morn. The people are "small in stature, but well proportioned, well knit, muscular, agile, their thick prominent lips and broad flat noses contrasting strikingly with the fine chiseled features of the Brahman. They are a light-hearted people, fond of music and dancing, ignorant and licentious." Mission work was commenced in 1846 by six German missionaries of the Berlin Gossner Mission. Four of the six soon succumbed to death, partly through undue exertion and exposure. The others toiled on. In 1850 the first converts were baptised, the number of additions increasing every year. In 1857 there were upwards of eight hundred Christians, who had to pass through a storm of persecution. "False charges were brought against them in the courts, their houses were plundered by armed bands, the large rice stores were carried off, the very roofs of the houses were taken away, and money and the women's ornaments forcibly seized." It is cheering to know that, as in Madagascar, the

VOL. VI. FIRST SERIES.

outrages were bravely endured. In the year of the mutiny, 1857, a determined effort was made to stamp out Christianity. Mission property was ruthlessly destroyed, converts hunted into the jungles and a price set on their heads. Yet the church came out of the trial stronger and better. In 1863 there were three thousand four hundred converts, of whom seven hundred and ninety were communicants. That these numbers are not the fruit of lax admission is evident from the probation through which candidates pass. Every inquirer is kept at least a year under the instruction of the village elder before baptism. A further probation is necessary before admission to the Lord's Table and full Church communion.

The following is a picture of a Sunday service from the Calcutta "Christian Intelligencer:"-" The lively ringing of church bells gathered a punctual congregation of some six hundred persons in the substantial, ecclesiastical-looking building, which is seen to rise up in the landscape for miles round. The men seated themselves in the open sittings on one side of the church, the women glided into those on the other side; and the school children, seventy or eighty in number, ranged themselves in a gallery in front of a harmonium. While wondering at the orderly crowd, you are surprised to see a native organist commence a voluntary, as the black-robed minister comes out of the vestry and mounts the steps which lead up into the ample chancel. You are at once struck with the taste and skill of the musical performance. At the minister's announcement of a hymn, a familiar tune strikes up, in which presently the children above and the people below heartily join. The elders of the church proceed to move about the nave and aisles to collect

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an offertory, which is set apart for the temple service and for the erection of village chapels. Next, there is a prayer, and then the minister stands up to read portions of Scripture recognised as those appointed for the Epistle and Gospel of the day in the Church of England. After the alternate verses of a psalm have been read by minister and people, he ascends the pulpit.

“As you look at the congregation, you are a little ashamed of your inattention, for you find your own to be the only wandering eyes. There is a quiet expression of ready watchfulness and self-possession in the countenances. As the animated preacher goes on, those who feel sleepy keep rising from their seats, and stand till they have recovered sufficient wakefulness to listen to the close. Some of the elders move quietly about the church to preserve order in the congregation, and also among the heathen strangers, who are generally seated near the door, and who occasionally call forth the preacher's rebuke. Such may even be peremptorily told by him, in the middle of his sermon, to leave the church. Now and then

the office-bearers are concerned with the mothers of noisy infants, or they are quietly reminding by a touch a drowsy brother that he should not lose the good words spoken. No wonder they are tired; some have come forty and even fifty miles during the previous day, and they will have to walk home next morn ing. Such earnestness would b disappointed if the preacher did not fill up his full hour. His uplifted arms at last announce the delivery of the blessing, which is received with lowly bended heads. And the people remain thus in private devotion while the minister descends from the pulpit, unrobes in the vestry, and comes out before the chancel steps, and gives the salutation with which all Christians greet one another here, Isa Sahai

Jesus, Helper'. The whole congregation then rises, and quickly disperses. But first those in the front seats, who are evidently the elders and the eldest converts, press forward to the missionary to take his hand before they retire, disappointed should he quit the church without first according to them that honour."

SCIENCE AND THE FUTURE LIFE.

CONCLUDING PAPER.

ACCORDING to the authors of the "Unseen Universe," the main scientific objection to a future state is "supposed to be furnished by the principle of Continuity." This principle may be variously expressed, e.g., the laws which now regulate the universe have ever been in force; the forces now at work in the physical universe are the only ones that have ever worked. A writer in "Fraser's Magazine" aptly quotes a verse from Ecclesiastes "as tersely defining the modern doctrine, 'The

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thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the sun.' The authors' statement is " assuming the existence of a Supreme Governor of the universe, the principle of Continuity may be said to be the definite expression in words of a trust that He will not put us to permanent intellectual confusion." The exact meaning of this it is difficult to discover; but from its subsequent application we gather

that it is meant to assert that no power in the present physical universe can be beyond human ken. One may readily conceive that this principle might be deemed inimical to certain articles of the Christian creed, to the miracles of our Lord, to His incarnation and resurrection, for example, but how it can be forced to militate against the existence of any future state passes our comprehension; unless, indeed, the principle of Continuity be wellnigh deified, be exalted into the test of all truth. But the proclamation "I will not accept as truth ought that the principle of Continuity does not compel me to receive" is rather stupid than scientific. Inasmuch, however, as this much belauded theory abhors destruction equally with creation, an unprejudiced thinker might well imagine it favour able to immortality. Such, loosely stated, is the position of our authors.

The principle of Continuity becomes the mainstay of the argument for the existence of an unseen universe. The process of metamorphosis does not appear, but the insuperable barrier to further progress is suddenly transformed into a stepping-stone. There is now a road marked out for us, let us see whither it leads :

"There are three conceivable suppositions with reference to individual immortality. It may be regarded as a transference from one grade of being to another in the present visible universe; or secondly, as a transference from the visible universe to some order of things intimately connected with it; or lastly, we may conceive it to represent a transference from the present visible universe to an order of things entirely unconnected with it."

The last possibility is summarily dismissed. Continued existence implies "a hold upon the past,"

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an organ of memory." In other words, such a removal would be the

gift of a new existence, not the extension of the old. At all events it would involve a breach of continuity. Thus we are driven to choose between the first hypothesis and the second. This necessitates an examination of "the present physical universe." physical universe." Is it a suitable sphere for immortality? To answer this question we must discuss the composition of this universe, "the Cosmos," and its probable fate. In common parlance the Cosmos is synonymous with "the material universe," but this, in the authors' opinion, is an egregious misnomer, for "matter is (though it may sound paradoxical to say so) the less important half of the material of the physical universe." The strongest proof of the objective reality of matter may be formulated as follows:

"Experience of the most varied kind consistently shows us that we cannot produce or destroy the smallest quantity of matter."

It triumphantly resists the imagination, the will and actual force. This fact is christened the Conservation of Matter.

Now, if we find anything else that is equally and similarly indestructible and unproducible, we are bound to ascribe to it objective reality, however reluctant our senses may be to admit the conception. Science teaches three other Conservations of Momentum, of Moment of Momentum, and of Energy. The first two are simply mathematical and do not concern the present inquiry; but the Conservation of Vis Viva (Energy) is declared strictly parallel with the Conservation of Matter. Energy is imperishable and uncreatable. Take the commonest illustration: fire a cannon-ball upwards against the force of gravity; its motion becomes slower and slower, till at length it

ceases altogether. The ball has lost its kinetic energy-that due to motion. But it has gained potential energy that due to position. Let the ball descend, it will then strike the earth with the same force (allowing for atmospheric resistance) that it possessed when it began to ascend. Nor is its energy destroyed even then, it has generated heat. Similarly it might be reasoned that the force wherewith the shot was expelled from the gun was not created, it lay stored up in the gunpowder. The grandest and subtlest of modern scientific discoveries is that denominated "the Correlation of Forces." All forces, mechanical, chemical, molecular, are but modifications of one and the same principle. To adopt the generalization of our authors:

"In any system of bodies whaterer to which no energy is communicated by external bodies, and which parts with no energy to external bodies, the sum of the various potential and kinetic energies remains for ever unaltered. In other words, while the one form of energy becomes changed into the other,-potential into kinetic, and kinetic into potential,-yet each change represents at once a creation of the one kind of energy, and a simultaneous and equal annihilation of the other the total energy present remaining unaltered."

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If indestructibility be the true criterion of substantive existence it is certainly satisfied by Energy. Hence we must perforce allow that "the only real things in the physical universe are Matter and Energy."

The "objective reality" of energy follows by logical necessity from the Correlation of Forces. Nor are we disposed to dispute it. We can find no weak link in the chain of argument by which Professors Stewart and Tait strive to establish it. Nevertheless it must be borne in mind that we have other grounds for attributing objective reality to matter besides its imperishability.

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Hitherto the line of argument has appeared to tend in favour of the adaptability of the present physical universe for our future state. next step is in an exactly contrary direction. The forms of energy are multitudinous, and it does work only as it passes from one form into another. Take the condensingengine for an example. Force lies dormant in the coal, it becomes heat, produces a chemical change upon the water, accomplishes a mechanical effect upon the piston and issues in motion. Heat is transmuted into work. But not all the heat developed by combustion; a large portion has accomplished for us just nothing, -that represented by the temperature of the condenser. The energy exists, but it has ceased to be available. A similar process is of perpetual repetition. The availability of heat for work is continually and steadily decreasing; the disparity between hot and cold bodies is tending to equilibrium, i.e. to disappear utterly, till, after the lapse of ages, even the sun and the earth will stand at the same temperature. All forms of energy are thus liable to degradation. In course of time "the last weight will have reached its level; the last molecule of matter will have satisfied its strongest affinity: all parts of the universe will be equally hot and no light-wave will cross the regions of space." (Helmholtz.) Nor is this the sole danger to which our globe is obnoxious:

"Owing to something analogous to ethereal friction, the earth and the other planets of our system will be drawn spirally nearer and nearer to the sun, and will at length be engulfed in his mass. In each such case there will be, as the result of the collision, the conversion of visible energy into heat, and a partial and temporary restoration of the power of the sun. At length, however, this process will have come to an end, and he will be extinguished until, after long but not immeasurable ages, by means of the same

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